, Top 3 Hull City mistakes of 19/20 season so far

Top 3 Hull City mistakes of 19/20 season so far

Hull City’s season has been something of a Jekyll and Hyde performance, an overachieving first half of the season saw the Tigers ignite a charge on the playoff places. But the departure of their two key men Bowen and Grosicki, with the subsequent drop off in performances that followed, have left McCann’s men lingering nervously above the relegation places by a threadbare two points.

The uncertainty that surrounds the completion of the football season is one that has been matched with Hull’s uncertainty on the field, whilst a break from competitive games is something that halts what would have been a likely relegation had the season continued.

The Tigers injury-depleted squad were struggling to find any form of momentum in 2020 with their only win coming on New Years Day at Sheffield Wednesday, a win that put Hull within a point of the play-off places.

Hull’s form in 2020 has been nothing short of dismal, with many hiccups, errors and mistakes plaguing a season that began to have much promise over the Christmas period. Here is a list of those laid bare:

1. Selling Bowen and Grosicki in January

Arguably the biggest mistake of Hull City’s season was selling their two main sources of goals in January. Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki were involved in 33 of City’s Championship goals, with Bowen scoring 16 before his move to West Ham United.

The two wingers were instrumental in Hull’s early-season rise up the table when a playoff charge looked increasingly likely before a dismal run put an end to those hopes.

Although replacements were recruited in an attempt to fill the void in the shape of Marcus Maddison and Herbie Kane, only Mallik Wilks has really found his feet in a Tigers shirt following his loan move from Barnsley – the 20-year-old has netted three times since joining in January.

The highly reputed James Scott was signed as a replacement forward from Motherwell, but his season was cut short almost as soon as he entered the building after sustaining a season-ending ankle injury in training.

2. Freezing out Markus Henriksen 

The arrival of Grant McCann had major ramifications on Markus Henriksen’s season, expected to depart in the summer with his contract set to expire in 2020, however, talks broke down between interested parties and he made it clear that he saw his future elsewhere. With that being said, McCann decided to strip Henriksen of his captaincy and freeze him out of the playing squad.

Whilst this decision could have preserved squad morale by refusing to play someone who has no intentions of being in East Yorkshire, the situation could have been handled better so an important player could have been utilised by City.

Henriksen remains on a contract that was signed in the Premier League and the Norwegian would have been a useful option to have in central midfield this campaign. Hull have struggled to keep the ball and have an average possession of 45.4% according to WhoScored, only bettering Millwall and Cardiff in that department. City are also ranked in 20th for their passing accuracy with 70.5% suggesting that Henriksen’s range of passing could have bettered that particular statistic.

Henriksen remains on loan at Bristol City where he joined in January and have benefitted from his presence in midfield as he continued to become a regular fixture in Lee Johnson’s side prior to COVID-19.

3. A 5-1 defeat at Stoke

In the final fixture before the pandemic put a stop to all football in the UK, Hull travelled to Stoke City in the midst of a relegation battle with their opponents sitting two places and two points below them, the game was huge.

You could forgive both sides for beginning the game with bottled up nerves, but you can’t forgive conceding three goals inside in the first 18 minutes against any team, nevermind a fellow relegation rival.

Hull went 3-0 down within the opening 20 minutes as two former players, Nick Powell and Sam Clucas hammered home Stoke’s superiority.

The game carried on in the same vein in the second half as the Potters added two more either end of a Hull goal, a scamp consolation in the 73rd minute with their first shot on target in the match.

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